Continuity and Change: how will King Charles tread the fine line between the two?

Elizabeth I’s personal motto was Semper Eadem – always the same. Other monarchs before and after her made do with Dieu et Mon Droit – God and My Right – which is more an assertion of sovereignty rather than an inspiration or an aspiration. Charles III has now inherited the regal motto from his mother as he passes Ich Dien along with the three feathers logo to his son William who will now serve as the new Prince of Wales. 

Monarchs are free to choose their own watchwords to live by. Scholars going through a royal copy of the Faerie Queene have discovered that the imprisoned Charles I adopted Dum Spiro Spero – while I breathe I hope. True enough, he could say that again and again all the way to the chopping block. 

The dutiful and inscrutable Elizabeth II was the living embodiment of muddling through. For much of her reign her personal motto amounting to Never Complain, Never Explain. It was just about enough to get her through until the Royal Family’s turbulent 1990’s, when she often found herself with some explaining to do, notably after the annus horribilis and death of Diana. 

In her calmer final decades this millennium, the late Queen became more willing to voice her thoughts about her role and the role of the monarchy in general. Her thesis was that she and her successors should manifest both “continuity and change”.

On her Golden Jubilee in 2002 she gave her address at Westminster in the Great Hall, where she must have known already that she would one day lie in state. “We in these islands have the benefit of a long and proud history,” she told a joint session of parliament, “this not only gives us a trusted framework of stability and continuity to ease the process of change, but it also tells us what is of lasting value.” 

The Queen is dead, long live the King! In case her speech was taken to be special pleading for the Crown, she assured her audience that the nation’s “timeless values… find expression in our national institutions – including the Monarchy and Parliament – institutions which in turn must continue to evolve if they are to provide effective beacons of trust and unity to succeeding generations.”

A decade later Her Majesty was back in the Great Hall for her Diamond Jubilee and struck up on the same theme: “We are reminded here of our past, of the continuity of our national story and the virtues of resilience, ingenuity and tolerance which created it. I have been privileged to witness some of that history, and with the support of my family, rededicate myself to the service of our great country and its people now and in the years to come.”

Elizabeth II was great at continuity but, when it came to change, her pace was no quicker than the passing years. In the few days since he became King, Charles has rushed to change in style and in practice. He has already redistributed his titles to his family and sent out redundancy warnings to his old staff at Clarence House.

Charles loves his Shakespeare and has the speaking skills of a classical thespian. He turned to Hamlet for his first public expression of love for his mother. Another of Shakespeare’s princes was on his mind during a documentary on his seventieth birthday. “The idea somehow that I’m going to go on exactly the same way if I have to succeed is complete nonsense”, he told the BBC, “because the two… the two situations are completely different. You only have to look at Shakespeare plays Henry V or Henry IV, Part 1 and 2 to see the change that can take place – because if you become the sovereign then you play the role in the way that is expected.”

Although the comparison is a ploddingly obvious one to make, Charles was being simultaneously unflattering and flattering to himself. He was never a bad boy like Prince Hal but he has yet to achieve the glory of the Kingly Victor of Agincourt. Nor has Charles noticeably ever run with low life boon time companions. Michael Fawcett hardly measures up to Falstaff.

Charles included a non-dramatic version of his proposed transformation in his first address to the nation, while suggesting that the eternal flux of change and stability would now pass to the next generation: “My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give up so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.”

In the first few days of the new reign, change has been more evident between the styles of Charles and his predecessor than in the man himself. He has shown himself to be a more approachable monarch, ready and willing to talk to and mix with the crowds outside his palaces. He is also prepared – Shakespeare again – to wear his heart on his sleeve by showing his emotions. His grief is palpable and he has expressed it movingly to the public.

The ever-present cameras have also caught revealing glimpses of a man long rumoured to be both fussy and irascible. At the Accession ceremony, he was inexplicably upset by the way an inkwell had been placed. Then CBS captured him losing his rag over a malfunctioning fountain pen. 

Asked to comment about the incident on television, my first reaction was “The Queen wouldn’t have behaved like that”, to which Piers Morgan retorted: “Cut him some slack”.

I am sure Her Majesty would not have thrown a wobbly. There are numerous stories of her relishing it when the best laid plans of those trying to impress her went wrong. If she had chosen to acknowledge the ink on her fingers at all, she would have made a pointed joke out of it.

The King was not amused. He got up from the table where he was signing and groaned to Queen Camilla and the rest of his entourage: “Oh God, I hate this…I can’t bear this bloody thing! … What they do, every stinking time!”. It was all caught on the exclusive footage being shot by the US network CBS. Too juicy to sit on CBS immediately released it to the rest of the world via social media.

In such a stressful week, it was a tiny thing to get irritated by and an amusing flash of the Royal character. Prince Charles is constitutionally incapable of staying buttoned up in all weathers, unlike his mother. At the age of 73, he’s not going to change now.

Perhaps he is none the worse for that. The nation took to its heart the grumpy character of Victor Meldrew in the BBC sit-com One Foot in the Grave. Played by the actor Richard Wilson, the elderly Meldrew was permanently frustrated by the world around him. His catch phrase was: “I don’t believe it”. Private Eye magazine already has a catchphrase for its spoof of Charles: “It really is appalling!”. He did not say that precisely at the signing ceremony but it’s the thought that counts. 

The new King knows his historic task is to sustain the institution of the monarchy, but he is incapable of doing so without a big change in the monarch’s style.